


Severed

by Donnies_Lady_87



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:45:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donnies_Lady_87/pseuds/Donnies_Lady_87
Summary: (Zombie AU) In a world filled with the undead with two brothers missing in the bloody fray, Leonardo is suddenly ordered to do a deed that he never thought would be asked of him.Written for the 'The Darkest Nights - Fan Book'  Check it out here!https://sampsonknight.deviantart.com/journal/The-Darkest-Nights-Fan-Book-is-OUT-712295662





	1. Separated

Leonardo had little idea that when he woke that morning that he would quite literally have his family split half. It had never been part of the plan but then that was life, you never woke up thinking that everything you knew was about to change forever. Who would have thought that six months before a deadly plague would sweep across the nation and change the fate of the planet as they knew it? It spread like wildfire and almost overnight New York was overrun with hordes of the undead.

 

For those six months they had managed to survive, remain unscathed and whole as a family even as hundreds around them had their lives quite literally torn asunder. He wasn’t quite sure when the unanimous decision was made but when several of the undead stumbled upon the lair for the tenth time in several months it was clear that it was no longer safe. Trapped underground with nowhere to go? It was a death trap waiting to happen.

 

He would have liked to have thought that leaving the only home they had ever known would have been more emotional but it was conducted in such a fashion that there simply was no time to lament and regret. Leo was sure that would come later. April’s farm house was the most logical fall back spot but if and how long they decided to stay there was anyone’s guess. The creatures were everywhere but one thing at a time. No good worrying about something that hadn’t even come to pass yet. 

 

Now above ground, the Shellraiser a burning wreck behind them Leo was starting to think that they weren’t going to be able to get out of the city, let alone to April’s farmhouse. It had all happened so fast. An obstruction in the road, and Leo had jerked the wheel to avoid the jack knifed truck. It was too much and the whole vehicle had tipped, clipping the tanker and rupturing the tank. A spark from colliding metals and it was clear what the rig had been carrying. Petroleum. The resounding BOOM seemed to shake the buildings around them. How they got out in time Leonardo wasn’t sure but he was grateful as his storm blue eyes swept across for a headcount and found everyone accounted for, save for Casey.

 

His heart sank at the thought. He’d left the lair one night four months ago to search for his little sister and father. Raph offered to help, heck they all did but whatever the reason Casey refused. They never saw him again and Raph was still raw about it.

 

Blinking back the sudden unexpected threat of tears Leo scrubbed a fist across his eyes and focused on the situation at hand. Now wasn’t the time for reminiscing, as the shove to the back of his shell reminded him.

 

“Fearless! We need to get out of here!”

 

With a swift nod Leo nodded and pointed. “We need to get to a main road, the last thing we need is to be trapped in a side street.”

 

“Very good Leonardo,” Splinter said as he came up beside them. “Go!” he said urgently ushering them all into a run. The explosion no doubt would bring the undead running. They always seemed to be attracted by loud sounds.

 

The group spilled out onto the main street only to be greeted by the most unwanted of welcome parties. A hoard of at least two dozen zombies, no doubt drawn together by the noise converged upon their very spot. There was no time to think only react as the bloody monsters charged, hands grabbing, mouths bloodstained and gaping, teeth that glistened in the tawny lamplight, gnashing with hunger and impatience. The clash was abrupt, fountains of red seemed to fly through the air as blades met undead flesh.

 

Leonardo spun about swinging his katana at every once human beast that came for him and as he slashed and stabbed he tried to keep tabs on his family. Raph remained close to his side, sais a blur of metal and scarlet as he spun them and effectively pierced every skull that came too near. Master Splinter brandished his crystal cane, now extended into chain weapon, cutting down the enemy with Mikey not too far to the left of him his kusarigama drawn, doing what had to be done. The thought of his baby brother having to do something so bloody and violent as taking a once human life hurt his heart. In the early days of the infection Mikey had been faced with the horrible reality that the lives of the humans that they had once tried to protect were now forfeit. It was kill or be killed. The brutal truth that practically shattered his innocence and childhood in the space of one blood soaked day. The remembrance still made him shudder.

 

Leo’s eyes flicked further and caught sight of Donnie and April predictably fighting off the hoard back to back, anticipating the other’s moves in a way that only those that trusted the other with their heart and soul only could. The pair had became practically inseparable. During the past six months the crush that they they had all shamelessly teased Donnie about in his younger teens had blossomed into something quite serious. It was no longer a running joke and Leonardo respected that.

 

“Leo! On your left!”

 

The younger leader spun about and cleaved the head from the neck of the would be attacker in one deft sweep. “Thanks Raph.”

 

“We seriously need to get out of here dudes!” Mikey’s voice called from somewhere behind him. “They, they just keep coming!!”

 

Yeah, they were going to get overrun if they remained here any longer. Leonardo swept out a bloody blade and pointed to a nearby residential building. “There! Let’s get to higher ground!”

 

Order given, the Hamato Clan cut their way through. The fire escape in sight Leo felt a pang of hope. Surely they would make much better progress above. Vaulting from roof to roof would hopefully keep them free of any more bloody clashes. They were almost there. Mikey hit the ladder first and was up it in a shot. Master Splinter followed and Raph was halfway up when from somewhere April screamed.

 

“DONNIE!”

 

Leonardo whipped around eyes scanning the alley and finding that neither April or his second youngest brother were in sight. “April! Donnie!” he was about to bolt towards the street when he felt the fire escape ladder jolt beneath his grasping fingers. “Raph! No! Get to the roof!”

 

Having seen something that he had not it was clear Raphael had taken matters into his own hands. Damn it! He streaked after his hot headed brother, desperate to stop him and juddered to a halt. The zombies had almost doubled in numbers in a matter of minutes and to his dismay Raphael was no nowhere in sight. No. This wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t happening!

 

His heart was trying to make a break from his chest, as it pounded relentlessly against his ribcage. He surged forward, swords to the ready as a black tessen streaked through the nearest zombie. Half a second later, April fell through the gap she had created and Leo was there in a shot to catch her.

 

“Donnie, I-I lost him back there,” she half wheezed, half cried and pointed back towards the bloody fray. “H-he was right behind me, I swear he was!”

 

Tears flooded her eyes and Leo stared into the throng that started to come toward them. Glancing down at April he gathered her into his arms and retreated. Raph and Donnie were in that mess behind them, somewhere. Maybe they could get a vantage point from the roof.

 

“Leo! Please! We can’t leave him!”

 

“We’re not April, we’ll be able to spot him from the top of the building and Raph too,” he dearly hoped so.

 

Moments later he clambered over the wall and joined Mikey and Splinter.

 

“Leo! April!” Mikey launched a desperate hug about the pair of them and then stepped back eyes wide and glassy. “Wh-where’s Donnie and Raph?”

 

Leo pulled his baby brother away from him and raced to the edge of the roof, perching on the lip as he surveyed the ground below. Nothing but the undead filled the street, seething, shouting and screaming for a taste of flesh but that was all that he saw. No flash of green, purple or red, save for the blood smeared everywhere. “No,” he murmured under his breath. They were gone. His two younger brothers had vanished. Missing in action. This was a nightmare. A complete and total nightmare.

 

He felt a sudden pressure on his shoulder and he gasped, near jumping out of his shell until realised who it was. “Leonardo.”

 

Leo lowered his head, too ashamed to look his father in the eye. “I-I lost them sensei, my brothers, how-how could I have lost them?” he swallowed back the rising lump in his throat as he stared helplessly at the growing mass of horror.

 

There came an unexpected, but reassuring squeeze upon his arm and he finally raised shimmering eyes to Splinter who gazed back at him benignly. “Raphael made his choice my son. Some things are just beyond our control,” where had he heard that before? “They will keep each other safe.”

 

If they’re alive. Leo squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

 

“Do not lose faith Leonardo. We must hold on to our hope no matter how small it may be.”

 

Leo nodded automatically. Splinter was right. If he couldn’t see Raph and Donnie in the heaving bodies below it had to mean they had gotten out, somehow. ‘Please let that be the truth,’ he silently prayed. He’d never forgive himself if he saw them again as part of the zombie plague…

 

“Come Leonardo, we must keep moving before-”

 

A terrified scream then rent air and both father and son whipped about to see a stray zombie that had managed to scale the fire escape after them. There was a moment when the world seemed to stand still and nobody was close enough to stop the inevitable from happening. April was the nearest, her tessen flashed out but too late.

 

Mikey shrieked in pain as April’s weapon knocked the head of the zombie from his left arm. Michelangelo then regained his senses enough to slam the blade of his kusarigama into the creature’s head whereupon it slipped lifelessly to the roof and spilled out a gory soup from gaping hole in its skull.

 

Pale blue eyes wide with fear and disbelief stared back, bloodied weapon slipping from the owner’s shaking fingers to grip his arm to his chest. “L-Leo,” Mikey whimpered, tears unmistakably welling. There was a hiccup of a sob and he spoke the words that sunk a phantom dagger deep into Leonardo’s chest. “It bit me bro, it-it bit me!”


	2. Unthinkable

April had already wrapped her arms protectively around the youngest turtle as he whimpered and shook, clinging to her for dear life.

 

“I-I don’t want to be one of them dude! I don’t wanna eat brains! I don’t want to never eat pizza again!” he howled.

 

Splinter had now joined the pair, examining the oozing wound on his youngest child’s arm, that was getting visibly darker as the seconds ticked by. “Calm yourself Michelangelo, hysterics will not solve this.”

 

Leo watched on, feeling utterly useless. What could they do? If anyone could have helped it would’ve been Donnie but he was missing. Taking control of the situation he would have told all of them what to do. The lump returned to his throat and he gazed at the ground, utterly lost.

 

“Leonardo!” Master Splinter’s tone snapped him from his maudlin thoughts, instantly demanding his attention. “Did Donatello figure out the timeframe for the transformation?”

 

“Huh?” Leo shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Sorry sensei?”

 

“How long does your brother have until he turns Leonardo?” Splinter demanded.

 

“Um,” the young leader trawled his memory. “Six, six hours.”

 

Splinter suddenly raised a finger as a thought obviously came to him. “Didn’t Donatello say there was a way to stop the infection spreading through the body?”

 

Leonardo frowned as the memory flashed briefly through his mind. “Yes, yes he did.”

 

“What was it?”

 

“He said, an interruption in the blood flow would stop the virus circulating,” Leo said hurriedly as he recalled.

 

“An interruption?”

 

Leo nodded. “Yes, Donnie said that the infection remained in a localised area before entering the rest of the body. Which means, the only way to stop the virus would be to-,” the young mutant’s voice trailed off as he realised the horrible truth.

 

“Y-you need to cut my arm off bro,” Mikey uttered tremulously.

 

For a moment Leonardo stared at Michelangelo as if he’d gone insane. No. He couldn’t. He couldn’t cut off Mikey’s arm. He was his baby brother for goodness sake!

 

“Leonardo, your brother is right. Severing the infected limb is the only sure way to save his life.”

 

“But, but father, I can’t do that,” he said quietly.

 

“You must.”

 

“But-”

 

“Leonardo! You brother’s life hangs in the balance and yet you dare argue with me?”

 

Leo bent his gaze to his feet.

 

“You know what must be done, now clean your blade,” Splinter admonished.

 

A mix of confused emotions rose up inside the youth and he he raised the shaft of one of his beloved katana. “April, can you-,” he found himself saying, indicating to his gore encrusted blade.

 

April approached fishing around in her pocket and pulled out a small bottle of hand sanitiser. “It’s all I have,” she murmured, slipping it into his hand and giving his wrist a squeeze of comfort.

 

Leo breathed in and swiftly pulled his cleaning rag out, tugging it forcefully over the metal until not a trace of red was left. He took up April’s bottle and dripped it onto the sword, tracing light fingers over the shining metal with the clear sterilising liquid. Finished he glanced up seeing that everyone had taken up a ready position. April’s hands dropped from the makeshift tourniquet that she had tied about the top of Michelangelo’s rapidly darkening arm and shot him a sympathetic look.

 

Splinter was whispering words of comfort into the youngest's ear as he slid a gentle hand under Mikey’s arm and held it firm so it was hanging straight out in front of him. April slipped a hug about the boy’s neck and Mikey pressed his head into the redhead’s shoulder, eyes squeezed shut in fearful anticipation.

 

Leonardo took a breath and stepped forward, taking in the shivering appendage that hovered before him. He felt himself nip his bottom lip and softly laid his hand atop Mikey’s now deeply veined skin. “You, you have to try and keep still, okay little brother?” he said quietly.

 

Mikey whimpered in acknowledgment, his head giving a faint nod. Brave kid. The upset was threatening once more swelling and filling his throat, becoming more painful as the seconds ticked by. Taking a shuddering breath, Leo placed his blade upon the as yet unmarred part of his baby brother’s arm. The boy whimpered again. He felt a tension grip his breast. It wasn’t going to leave him much of a stump. He’d hesitated for far too long. He briefly shut his eyes, cursing himself and leant forward briefly lifting the blade as he placed a light kiss upon the very spot where he intended to make the cut.

 

Mikey’s pale blue eyes slipped open and for a moment their eyes met. “Close them Mikey, close them,” Leo uttered. “You don’t want to see this.”

 

Michelangelo obeyed, slamming his lids down as Leonardo replaced his katana. By now the leader’s heart was thumping so hard that he swore it would crack his ribs. His breath caught as the sharp edge started to skim a fine red line across the leaf green skin as it hovered nervously above its target.

 

“LEONARDO!”

 

His father’s angry voice filled his ears and with a yell he raised his sword and brought it sailing down. The tears burned from his stormy eyes as he felt the metal enter his sibling’s flesh. It didn’t resist. It didn’t drag. It passed clean through and it barely took a second to cleave his brother’s limb from the rest of his body. It was sickeningly easy.

 

Bloody and useless the infected appendage slapped into the roof and Leo couldn’t tear his sights away from it.

 

Despite April’s efforts to help Mikey to muffle it, he still screamed, long and hard. He sobbed and howled as Splinter swiftly stemmed the dripping stump, binding it as tightly as he could with the little supplies that they had.

 

Leo felt his stomach turn as he watched the darkening blood pool about Mikey’s arm. The need became to great and unable to swallow it down, Leonardo heaved. The contents of his stomach spilled before him and he raised a trembling hand to wipe the residue away from his bottom lip. Surely, surely the night couldn’t get any worse than this could it?

 

A shadow fell across him and Leo cast a wary sideways glance and glimpsed Splinter looming over him.

 

“Why did you hesitate? You knew your brother’s life was at risk.”

 

Leo rocked briefly back and forth, a roiling, deep down inside frothing and rising as all the hurt, guilt, fury and frustration mixed together into a poisonous brew that finally boiled over and scalded him mercilessly. He vomited out the words, that would have normally never had manifested themselves under any other circumstances but they spewed forth and once they were said he couldn’t take them back.

 

“The world has gone to hell father,” he started lowly. “In six months I lost a friend that I called brother and a city that I had sworn to protect. Tonight I lost my home, Donatello and Raphael so forgive me if I balked at having to hack off my baby brother’s arm!! I can’t bottle up my emotions as well as you can, so give me a fucking break!!” He smashed a hand to his face as if trying to shove the escaping tears back down. There was a bitter taste in his mouth as if the words had actually left a tangible presence there.

 

Splinter in response, said nothing.

 

~TDN~

 

Several hours later what remained of the Hamato clan sat in an abandoned van as it sped towards the outskirts of the city. April was in the driver’s seat with Splinter on the passenger’s side staring stonily ahead. He hadn’t spoken a word since Leonardo’s outburst and the youth was already feeling that once they had reached comparative safety that he was in for a world of hurt. He’d never been disrespectful toward Master Splinter, ever but he couldn’t stop himself. His entire life seemed to have disintegrated around him and the weight of leadership had never felt more heavy than it had done in that moment. He’d felt that he failed everyone. The city. Casey. Donnie. Raph. April. His baby brother who was currently huddled up next to him in the backseat of the boosted vehicle.

 

He subconsciously hugged him closer and tried not to feel the bandaged stump that brushed up against his plastron.

 

“Leo?” Mikey mumbled sleepily as if in response to the tightening embrace.

 

“Go back to sleep Mikey, we’ll be out of the city soon.”

 

Michelangelo snuggled back into his big brother’s shoulder. “M’kay,” was the drowsy reply. “Thanks for saving me Leo, love you bro,” and he was asleep once more.

 

Leonardo suddenly sucked in a ragged breath, holding it as the innocent words sank in. A soreness filled his suddenly shrinking throat and he felt an unwanted tide rise within him. He didn’t deserve that. He was a poor leader and a bad brother. He should have driven the Shellraiser more carefully, eased his foot off the accelerator when Donnie told him too. Then they’d still be altogether and Mikey would still have his arm.

 

Thick rivulets started to cascade down his grimy cheeks and then the sobs bubbled up. Leo clamped a hand over his mouth trying to stifle them as they jolted his chest in harsh unforgiving waves. No, it wasn’t everyday that your family was literally split in half. Severed.

 

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, must first foray into some TMNT horror! I just really wanted to do a Zombie AU :D


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